When a woman chooses to stay at home to care for her children, it can be difficult in terms of family finances. It is even more imperative now as the economy is biting harder by the day. There is a pressing need more than ever for multiple stream of income in the family as “take – home” is no longer able to take many to even the office car park let alone home!

Being a stay-at-home Mum does not necessarily translate to the fact that you can’t contribute financially to your family. You should be able to find a way to keep your family a central part of their day-to-day lives, while also managing to bring in extra income with your own home based business, a business that offers a flexible schedule, minimal customer interaction and must generally fit in to your lifestyle.
ere are 10 top recommendations for home businesses that you can start with very little money, which are a great fit for busy Stay-At-Home, Mums and perhaps, Dads!

Website Management
When it comes to website management you can do everything from sell ads, edit and schedule content, hire writers, promote on social media and more. It is such a diverse business you can explore and it doesn’t take so much to get started. First step is to get trained and you can do that from home as well.

Accounting
If you are one of those with excellent financial skills then don’t let it waste. Write to as many companies as you know; small and medium enterprises in your area telling them of the accounting services you can render. Most of these businesses often require help with their audited reports and tax documentation. If you write to a 100 companies, at least you will get a response from probably 10 and you would have started your own Accounting Company right in your home!

Editor:
Do you have an eye for detail and excellent grammar and spelling skills? Authors and writers are in desperate need of Editors and proofreaders to correct and fine-tune their masterpieces. You can do this for a fee.

Graphic Designer:
Graphic Design is fast becoming the trend and easy way to visually communicate with people especially with the advent of social media. Graphic expressions could be in form of posters, info-graphics, e-flyers, e-brochures, magazine ad, a website, a business logo, business cards or even an album cover. All are products of a graphic designers and all you need to start is a laptop after a few weeks of training.

Children’s Book Writer
A friend of mine, Lanre though not a Stay-at-home Mum is currently working on a Children’s book soon to be launched. Though it started out as something she was doing for her Twin girls…but almost all the parents who saw the book with her kids want for their so she has decided to publish en mass. So, if you love to write and illustrate and can’t keep good stories out of your head, you may want to give writing a children’s book a try as these are not very common in our environment.

Come up with an idea and get writing. You can add the illustrations at the end, or have someone do them for you if drawing isn’t your thing. Like Lanre, just take advantage of the perfect test-audience to try your masterpiece out on – your own children!

Interior Designer:
Do you have a flair for design? Use your creative skills as an Interior Design or Decorator to assist others with creating an environment that suits their personality and needs. This is exactly how Gladys Ajiri a young lady with a very inspiring story started out. With a paltry sum of N9,000 she helped a friend fix up her apartment. The outcome of that one job gave her the courage to seek more. Today, she has done jobs for multinationals and on the 14th of May 2016, she would be commissioning the Luxurious Ultra Modern Show of her Interior & Furnishing Company
Brookhouse International!

Like Gladys, you can make an inroad into this business by helping homeowners use what they already have to decorate their homes and become an Interior Re-designer. You can also help people with little budgets decorate their homes creatively with not so expensive but unique and pretty items and gradually grow from there! Make sure you set yourself apart from the pack in the industry by specializing in a certain area or style of design.

Social Media Consultant/Marketer:
Are you addicted to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram? Then you may be ready to launch your own home-based career in one of the hottest professions available right now!
With the growth of sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, the need for someone to help businesses navigate these marketing avenues is high. If you love to use these types of platforms and you can help companies grow their own following, this may be the business for you. Of course you know how the like of Olori, Omojua and their likes are smiling to the Banks in this line of business. Big Brands now pay heavily for social media posts and exposures and the small and mediums businesses are not left out. I hear some Instagram handles charge as high as N100,000 for a single post. Imagine if they have one a day for 30 days? Not even a bank job will pay that much in a month!

Soap Making
Many people are going back to basics and buying all-natural soaps with the #TeamNatural craze. By adding special herbs, fragrances and colors, you can make gourmet and natural soaps right in your own kitchen. My good friend Olatubosun Afolayan of Semsey Creations is doing this big time and making a huge success of it. And guess what? She works in an Oil and Gas firm! So if you stay home, you sure can do better. Just ensure your packaging is on point!

Tutoring:
Are you a Math, Science, Music, English or Computer whiz? Tutoring can be a wonderful home based business opportunity, especially for those people who have an extensive knowledge of the subject. Just put the word out there that you can tutor students weak at the subject in school and require special attention or students preparing for any exams especially entrances examinations…you would be sure to have students queuing up at your door steps with their wards!

Online Learning Portals:
Are you a wealth of knowledge? Do you have a good amount of knowledge in a field that other people are interested in? Then writing and distributing articles, webinars, Podcasts, Tele-seminars, videos, tutorials, e-books on the topic is a great, easy way to make some extra money. The topic ideas and information that you can share are endless. Steve Harris Nigeria’s leading Business and Life strategist is big on this and he is cleaning out big time! He is currently offering trainings on how you can get this done so be sure to enroll for his online course to learn how you can get yours started!

If you aspire to be an entrepreneur and yet stay home to look after your kids, I want to encourage you to pick one business idea from this list and take that first step today. Then take another step tomorrow and another step the next day. All those small steps will add up and you’ll eventually get to where you need to be!

Mercy Makinde is a speaker, writer, coach and entrepreneurship advocate. She owns an online radio Station, Iaspire Radio, Nigeria’s first motivational radio Station; www.iaspireradio.com and a motivational and inspirational blog;www.iaspireblog.com.